Day 4
Monday December 18, 2000
Luxor meet, Reserve VP and blackjack at Palace Station, Binion’s and the Cal

Got up a little late today and started the day by going on-line for a while, then heading up the strip to Luxor for the meet that was scheduled on the Las Vegas Talk Message Board for 1pm at Nefertiti's Lounge. When I arrived Frank the webmaster was there already. Soon after MM from CA, gsgetz, and Bob from Cleveland joined us. The meet lasted a little over an hour and then we all went our separate ways. Apicture of this meet can be seen by clicking here.

I headed out to the Reserve. I've heard they offer 5X points on Mondays but wasn't sure of where to get the coupon needed. When I got there I went to the slot club and the lady there filled one out for me and deposited it in the drum. I started out playing the 50-play video poker in nickels. I was doing ok but ended up losing $200 in about 2 hours. I did manage to hit a royal for $200 on line 40 on a 3-card hold, but lost it. The dealt winners were far and few.

I was hungry now so I comped myself to a meal at Tusks, the Reserve's steakhouse. You get a $30 comp for 15,000 points. Any unused comp dollars go back into your account. I ordered the 10oz. filet mignon. It was very tender. They have changed a few things here since my last visit. Now you get what they call a Caesar salad, which is quite weak. It's a few chunks of lettuce, some croutons, and microscopic amount of cheese sprinkled on it. It was good though. Or, you can get a bowl of clam chowder. You used to get a garden salad with a few different types of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and assorted other greens. They still serve those rolls that are soaked in butter though. They are really good. I also noticed they don't offer as many toppings for the baked potato either. The food was good and the service was average at best.

After dinner I took another shot at the 50-plays. I had no real luck here this time and ended up losing another $200. In total I ran over $11,000 through these today. I wanted to play some blackjack here but I noticed that all but 2 of the tables were now shoe games. They used to offer mostly single and double deck games but now there was only one of each and those tables were full. Since I hate playing on a shoe I decided to leave.

I went down to Palace Station since I had a room there and I thought I'd give them a little play. When I got there I wanted to go up to the room for a while and when I got up there my keys wouldn't work. I went down to the front desk and they made me new keys. These didn't work, so I headed back down to the front desk and they gave me more new keys. This time they sent security to meet me there in case these keys didn't work. They didn't and I stood in the hallway like a jerk for 10 minutes until security arrived. He used a master key to open the door and then reprogrammed the lock so that my keys would work. I relaxed in the room for a while and then headed down to the casino for a while. I played some double deck blackjack. Not wanting to lose too much money, I decided to cut down from betting green to betting $10-$15 a hand instead. Of course the table was hot and I was winning. I was still a bit afraid to bump up too much so didn't bet past $25. About an hour and a half later I cashed out up $200. As I was heading out I saw a bank of video poker that was called pay the aces without the faces. The game is bonus poker with 2 pair paying even money and three of a kind only paying ten. The pay table was really bad but it paid a bonus if you were dealt an ace without a face card. Being dealt 1 ace without a face paid a 5 coin bonus, 2 paid 10 coins, 3 paid 250 coins and 4 dealt aces with no face paid 7,500 coins. I was doing ok not gaining any money but not losing either. Then I was dealt 3 aces with no faces for 250 coins. I finished out the session up $50 and then headed back downtown to Main Street Station.

I wanted to play more low limit blackjack but the tables at MSS were all full. I walked over the bridge to the California and found a double deck game there. Things were ok here for a while but then the dealer got hot and wiped out the $200 I won at Palace Station earlier.

After this loss I decide to take one more shot tonight over at Binion’s. I was playing head to head with the dealer for a while. I was playing green on 2 hands. For the most part I was winning one hand and then losing the other. Pushing for the most part. Then a new dealer arrived. His name was Samuel. I've played with him at Binion's before and he's a fun dealer. He likes to joke around and it makes the game a little more fun. Things were up and down then I got on a small streak and was up $500. I ran like hell from the table and called it a night since it was after 2:30am. I headed back up to the room at MSS and now here I am typing this report up as a train goes by outside.

Total win/loss for the day $ 50
Total comps for the day $ 128